Career Development

SOY provides many opportunities for our college-bound students to learn about careers through the monthly career speaking program with panelists of professionals who often are alumni of SOY talk about their careers and career paths.
SOY has also worked with local companies that have invited SOY students to their organizations to see how the companies run and to also learn about the various jobs available to them. Both at Volcom and Vans, students received private tours of the private headquarters and listened to speakers in career panels talk about the career they have made within the company.

SOY also provides workshops and opportunities for students to learn how to get a job, how to interview and write a resume, how to understand finances and how to save money and build credit, with the help from our collaboration with Youth Employment Services (YES), Chase Bank Community Outreach Programs, and volunteers from the business and banking community.

See photos of Mock interviews with YES volunteers.

SOY has collaborated with LifeVest, a Financial Literacy Residential Program for high school students in the summer, through UCI’s Paul Merage Business School and Pacific Life. SOY has sent more students to this week-long program than any other non-profit in the county. This is a life-changing opportunity for our students to stay on a college campus, live in the dorms and learn about financial literacy, all while a freshman or sophomore in high school.
SOY also has started a Trades Education Program, with speakers and volunteers from the local trade unions, from the local junior colleges—including Orange Coast College, Golden West College, and Santa Ana College—as well as local community members. As we realize that not all students will go to college, we have many students in our programs that are looking for good jobs after they graduate from high school. SOY is helping to provide them opportunities to get fully employed in good jobs that will provide them benefits and union wages. Many of these students can receive free training in the certificate programs offered at the above community colleges. We try to provide them access and understanding on how to enroll and also work with their ROP counselors at their high schools. We also take them on tours to these colleges to see the programs firsthand. We also have a counselor from OCC who comes to SOY to explain these opportunities to our students who have not thought of college as an option.

In the fall of 2023, SOY had a panel of speakers on Careers in Trades from the Orange County Labor Federation, the International Local of Operating Engineers and the Los Angeles and Orange County Building and Constructions Trades Council. These career trade union professionals provided students with learning opportunities on how to enroll in apprenticeship programs that will lead them into good paying jobs.

We will be continuing expanding this program to include more opportunities to meet more people in the trades and see firsthand how they too can get a good job.

If you would like to volunteer or help out in the trades program please click here.

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